Puzzle.



PATENTED IULY'9,190T

R.TANNER;-

PUZZLE.

APPLIOATION FILED MAB.2e.1a0m

INVENTOR W1 TNESSES To n ner Affameys 1's: NORRIS PETERS ca. \vAsmncmn, n c,

RICHARD TANNER, OF LINCOLN, NEBRASKA.

PUZZLE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 9,1907.

L plication filed March 28,1907. Serial No. 365,063.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RICHARD TANNER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lincoln, in the county of Lancaster and State of Nebraska, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Puzzles; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to new and useful improvements in a puzzle and fortune telling device and my object is to so arrange the puzzle that the operator can tell the part of the puzzle the player will stop on when complet ing a certain play and a further object is to provide cer tain parts of the device with designating characters whereby when the player selects a certain character and refers to a table, a certain question and answer will be given.

Other objects and advantages will be hereinafter referred to and more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings which are made a part of this application, Figure 1 is a plan view of my improved puzzle ready for use, and, Fig. 2 is a detail sectional view thereof.

Referring to the drawings in which similar reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views 1 indicates the handle portion of my improved puzzle which is preferably a section of rigid wire to the upper end of which is secured a head 2 while to the lower end thereof is secured a knob or the like 3.

Mounted upon the handle 1 and between the head 2 and knob 3 are any suitable number of beads 4 or the like and in this instance I have shown twelve of the beads in position upon the handle and when the beads are employed in connection with fortune telling the surfaces of said beads are provided with certain designating characters 5 each bead having a character distinct from the other beads.

Secured to the head 2 in any preferred manner is a frame 6 which is preferably disposed in the form of a circular loop, the free ends of the frame being in this instance, secured in sockets 7 in the head and mounted upon the frame 6, are a plurality of balls or the like 8, and in this instance, I have shown seventeen balls upon the frame, said balls being of sufficient diameter to snugly fit against each other and entirely cover the frame while in the case of the beads upon the handle 1, said handle may be of greater length than the combined diameters of the beads so that said beads may be moved longitudinally on the handle.

In operating the puzzle, instructions are given to the player as follows; select a certain number in your own mind, then count the number of beads exposed to view upon the handle 1 and then a sufficient number of the balls 8 upon the frame 6 to complete the number thought of, the player in counting the beads and balls passing to the right of the head 2 and after a sufficient number of the balls 8 have been counted to complete the number thought of, the player is then to count to the left commencing with the last ball used to complete the number, the same number of balls as the number thought of. l

The secret of the puzzle is that the operator can tell the exact ball to the left of the head 2 used by the player to complete the number thought of and as an illustration the operator grasps the knob and holds the puzzle to the view of the player and requests the player to select a number in his own mind, which as an illustration is 15, and then count the number of beads exposed upon the handle, which in this instance is 12 andin order to complete the number thought of it will be necessary to count three of the balls at the right of the head 2, thereby making fifteen in all, then by commencing with the third ball or the last one required to complete the number and counting to the left until fifteen of the balls have been counted on the frame, the last ball on the frame required to complete the number will be the twelfth ball to the left of the head 2.

The secret of being able to tell the last ball used, is that it will require the same number of balls to the left of the head to complete the number as the number of beads counted on the handle 1 and this rule will apply to any number selected. As a further illustration suppose that the operator extends his hand along the handle 1 until five of the beads, counting from the knob 3 are covered, thereby leaving seven of the beads exposed when the player will select a number and then count the number of beads exposed and a sufficient number of the balls to the right of the head 2 to complete the number thought of.

As an illustration, suppose, the player thought of the number 11 which will require that the player use four of the balls to the left to complete the number thought of, when by starting with the last ball used and again counting to the left to 11, the last ball employed in completing the number will be the seventh ball and if desired the operator may state before the player completes the count that the seventh ball from the left of the head will be the last ball counted, it being understood, of course, that the player keeps the number thought of to himself and also that the counting is to be done secretly, thereby making the result very mystifying, the only requirement on the part of the operator to arrive at a proper result, being to be sure of the number of beads left exposed and counted, as such number will be the number of the balls to the left of the head required to complete the number thought of.

In employing the puzzle for fortune telling, the beads only, are used and in order to accomplish the required result, the player is to place the finger upon some one of the beads, the player preferably doing so with closed eyes, so that the bead will be selected by chance and after the bead has been selected, the player notes the position of the bead so selected, counting from the head 2 and as an illustration we will suppose that the bead selected is the tenth from the head, then in order to find the question relating to the tenth bead and the answer thereto, which will be found by noting the designating character on the tenth bead, a table is employed for this purpose, said table not being shown and it will be understood that said table may be provided with such instructions as will be required to successfully accomplish the proper result.

What I claim is.

l. The herein described puzzle, comprising a handle, a head carried by the handle, beads confined on the handle between the free end thereof and the head and balls confined on each side of the head and at least equal in total number to the number of beads.

2. The herein described puzzle, comprising a handle, a head at one end of said handle, a knob at the opposite end of said handle, a plurality of beads surrounding said handle between the head and knob, a frame carried by said head and a plurality of balls on said frame, equal to or greater in number than the number of beads said balls being equally distributed on opposite sides of the head.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of the subscribing witnesses.

RICHARD TANNER,

Witnesses EDWARD A. (.HUncn, Mrs DON C. Dnsrusrx, ERNEST H. PHELPS. 

